


The Winchester Sister

by jeweldancer



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Breakup of character's relationship, Death of character's parents, Fire, Other, Protective Dean Winchester, Protective Sam Winchester, The Winchesters have an (adopted) sister, no romantic relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-23
Updated: 2015-11-23
Packaged: 2018-05-03 00:02:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5268878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jeweldancer/pseuds/jeweldancer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The reader meets Bobby Singer and the Winchester family after she survives a supernatural attack that kills her parents. She is adopted by Bobby and grows up under the protection of her hunting “family”. The story deals with the main characters PTSD after witnessing her parents' death, and how the young Winchester brothers and Bobby support her. There are no major romantic relationships in this series, so if that's what you're looking for, you're in the right place.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Winchester Sister

**Author's Note:**

> A while back, I started an AU about the Winchester brothers’ adopted sister at the request of a reader. I wrote kind of a prequel to the series, about how they met and all, and then stopped. Yesterday someone requested that I repost it, so here it is! It’s quite different from what I usually write, but if this isn't your cup of tea, don't worry. I'll be back to my regularly scheduled programming soon. :)

You met the Winchesters the month after you turned eleven, two weeks after the tragic fire that claimed the lives of your parents. Young as you were, you knew something wasn’t right about the whole thing, and you demanded answers of the man who saved you from the fire. Bobby Singer respected your intelligence enough that he gave you what he considered to be an age-appropriate version of the truth, sparing the more gory details. It hadn’t just been truthfulness on his part; he was afraid the creatures responsible for your parents’ deaths would come back to finish the job, and he’d be damned if you were left with no idea of how to protect yourself.

As reluctant as he was to take in a girl child, something about your steely determination and dry sense of humor made him think that the two of you could get along. More importantly, there was no one else to do the job. The other hunter families he knew were strapped for money and resources, many of them having taken in orphaned children of hunters themselves. John Winchester was having enough trouble raising his own two boys, and Bobby had a strong suspicion that Sam and Dean were neglected most of the time. Turning you over to DCS was never an option; Bobby knew that their social workers would have no idea how to deal with a kid traumatized by a supernatural event. 

So you came to live at Bobby’s house, arriving with no belongings to your name except the clothes on your back. Everything else had been lost in the fire. Bobby took you into town and prevailed upon the clerks at the local department store to set you up with whatever you needed. He told them you were his orphaned niece, and after cooing over you sympathetically, the ladies got to work. You and Bobby left the store with new clothes, shoes, bed sheets printed with purple butterflies, and a few stuffed animals. 

A few days later, he got word to John Winchester to stop by his house with the boys as soon as it was convenient. You were spending most of your days sitting on your new bed, clutching a stuffed animal and staring into space. Bobby was trying, but he felt some company of your own age might help. 

It did. Sam was only a little older than you, and his natural kindness led him to understand just what to say, or when you didn’t want to talk at all. You sat together playing board games many afternoons, Sam telling you about some story he read in English class, or someplace he and Dean had been. 

Dean wasn’t as good at the talking part, but he understood what you had gone through more than anyone. He quickly became your protector, and affectionately nicknamed you “Kid”. When the other kids at school taunted you for being the orphan who lived in “that weird creepy house”, Dean took care of it. You never knew what he said to them, but no one bothered you after that. 

“Why would you do that for me?” you asked him later. Dean was surprised. “Why wouldn’t I? I woulda done the same for Sammy, if he needed it.” “But Sammy’s your brother.” “Don’t you remember what Bobby says? ‘Family don’t end in blood.’ As far as me and Sammy are concerned, you’re our sister. And we look out for our family.”

Even John Winchester tried to be kind to you, in his own way. As you grew older and realized how poorly he treated his boys, though, there were few warm feelings between you. Bobby agreed with you on the subject, but let you know that there was nothing to be done about it. “All we can do is be good to them while they’re here,” he said. “The rest of the time we don’t have any control over it. And we can’t say too much, or John would never let them see us again.” After that little talk, you had made a greater effort to be nice to them; letting Dean pick which TV show to watch, or making chocolate chip cookies with Sam.  
Bobby became like a father to all three of you. Sometimes you just got weary of everything; tired of the nightmares, tired of people asking what happened to your parents, tired of some small thing on TV or a movie triggering memories of what happened. “Now look, kid,” he’d say to you when you got discouraged. “You’re one of the strongest people I know. You got more to deal with than most people, and what do you do? You get up every day and keep trying. Most people couldn’t deal with what you have without breaking. That makes you strong. Don’t ever go thinking you’re weak. It ain’t true.”

Childhood hadn’t been easy on any of you, but the memories of the time you three spent together were golden. What was that quote? “Nothing gold can stay”? Sam had gone off to Stanford, and suddenly John wouldn’t talk about him anymore. Dean mentioned Sam to you occasionally, but you could tell the subject hurt him, and you tried to spare him that. Sam was always loyal to you, though. He called to check up on you, remembered your birthday, gave you advice about school. “You have to go to college, Y/N,” he insisted. “You’re smarter than most of the kids here, and you’re a hell of a hard worker. Think about it, at least. Promise me.”

You thought about a lot, but didn’t know how you’d manage it. You couldn’t impose on Bobby to pay your tuition, not after all he’d done for you. College was so expensive. But one day Bobby sat you down and explained that he had been saving what money he could ever since you came to him for just that purpose. 

“It’s not enough to pay for four years of college, Y/N,” he said wearily. “But it’s a start, and I think a smart kid like you could get some scholarships or something to help with the rest. And if you don’t want to go to college, use it for something else. Hell, go to beauty school if you want. Anything besides hunting, okay?”

You weren’t much on crying, but you cried hard on Bobby’s shoulder that day. Every time you tried to tell him how much the gesture meant to you, the tears started again. Finally Bobby patted you on the back and told you not to worry about it. “Go to the guidance counselor’s office and pick up some college brochures, okay, kid? We’ll look at them together and see what we can do.”

You ended up picking a school about an hour from Bobby’s house. You just couldn’t make yourself go any further away from the only home you knew. “I’m going to major in physical therapy,” you told Bobby. “I’ll always be able to find work, and I can help people who’ve been hurt or sick.”

Bobby was silent as he thought about the parade of injured hunters you had seen come and go through the years. “I’m proud of you, kid. I don’t suppose I can help much with your schoolwork, but you promise to come to me about anything else you need, you hear?”

College was hard to get used to, especially going from being around mostly guys to living in an apartment full of girls. Some days there was way too much drama for your taste, but you found a few good friends and counted yourself lucky. Sam was so thrilled that you were going to school that he insisted you call him anytime you needed advice or encouragement. You tried to bother him as little as possible, but he was a lifesaver during your first finals week when he talked you down from a late-night anxiety attack. “You got this, Y/N! I promise you. Everybody feels this way. You remember more than you think. Take some deep breaths, have some hot chocolate and go to bed.”

Dean was a different story–there was a little bit of distance between the two of you now. Losing you and Sam to college was hard for him; he wanted to be happy for the both of you, but he missed the certainty of having his brother and sister nearby all the time. You knew he also felt that he was not good enough, not smart enough, to do what you and Sam had done. It was bullshit; he was smarter than the majority of students you knew, but he would never see it that way. John Winchester had raised him as a soldier, an always obedient son. Dean had never had a chance at anything other than hunting.

Dean did his best to stay close to you, though. Every few months he would show up unexpectedly, usually right after he’d finished a hunt, his eyes jittery and tired. “Had to check up on you, sis,” he’d say. “Make sure you’re okay, you know?” Your friends were awe-stricken by your “hot” older brother, and fought over who would sit next to him at dinner. Dean being Dean, he enjoyed flirting with cute college girls, but he never went past that to avoid making things difficult for you. Because no matter what, next morning he would be up early to head down the road to the next creature or ghost or whatever. He’d poke his head into your room to say goodbye before he left. “Gotta head out, sweetie. You call me if you need anything, you promise?” “Same to you, Dean. You know you can stay here anytime you need to.” “Thanks, kid.” “Dean? Stay safe. Don’t get your ass killed, okay?” He’d head down the hall, laughing softly, and in a few minutes you’d hear the Impala firing up and roaring down the road.

The night after your first boyfriend dumped you for some sorority girl, you heard a knock on the door. Staring blearily through eyes swollen by crying, you opened it to see Dean there, holding a plastic grocery bag. “You okay, honey?” he asked gently, and that did you in. You were immediately sobbing on his shoulder. “Hey, kid, hey, you’re gonna be okay,” he murmured as he patted your back. “Now c'mon. I brought ice cream.”

Dean stayed for a couple of days that time, sleeping on your sofa and making trips to a nearby diner for take-out burgers and pie. When you ran into your ex a few days later, he avoided you, but not before you noticed his black eye.


End file.
